China has been producing robotic dogs capable of shooting at a mass scale.
These dogs, which are four-legged machines, are being used as novelty electronic pets or to carry out mundane tasks like carrying a discus for a track and field athlete.
The Chinese military has shared footage through state media which showed some of these dogs as being armed and placed among live military exercises.
However, critics have dismissed the video as propaganda, while stating that the build of these robots will make them ill-suited to tackle the recoil of standard firearms, and it will also be impossible to fire with a trained soldier's speed and precision.
Robotic dogs to revolutionise future warfare?
However, others have acknowledged the potential of this new technology, stating that it can revolutionise future warfare.
Several units of the robotic dogs were bought by the US Marine Corps to evaluate the Chinese-made robotic dogs' combat effectiveness last year.
And although the results of the evaluation conducted were not made public, a study conducted by Chinese scientists said that these robotic dogs are likely to outshoot even seasoned troops, in terms of handling firearms.
The study “demonstrates the feasibility of a legged strike platform”, wrote lead scientist Xu Cheng and his team, in a peer-reviewed paper which was published in the Chinese Journal of Engineering.
According to the research done by the Chinese team, the US military may not be able to use these dogs in the best way on the battlefield.
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Xu has been working as a professor of mechanical engineering at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He is also the Chinese Light Weapons Society's vice-president.
For long, the university has been sanctioned by the United States because of its close ties with the Chinese military.
As part of the study, the team of Xu placed a 7.62mm machine gun on a robotic dog. The gun, which was used, was capable of firing 750 rounds per minute, even though the model's specifications were not mentioned.
The weapon also had a shock-absorbing mount, automatic reloading system and optoelectronic sight.
Then, the robotic dog fired 10-round bursts at a human-sized target, which was standing at a distance of 100 metres (328 feet).
If the target was a person's chest, most of the bullets would have hit the heart and the regions close to it.
(With inputs from agencies)
